Heidenstrasse
The Heidenstraße was a more than 1000 years old and around 500 kilometers long military and trade route that led on a direct route from Leipzig via Kassel to Cologne .
history
The old long-distance trade route was called “Heidenstrasse” in the Sauerland . The fact that there are several prehistoric and early historical ring walls in the immediate area of Heidenstrasse has led the historians H. Böttger and Albert K. Hömberg to even assume that this path is of the Latenean age .
Elsewhere, the road used from the 8th century was also called "Köln-Kassler-Landstrasse" or "Alte Landstrasse". Emperor Otto III probably moved on this street . in the year 1000 coming from the east to Aachen . In Oedingen and Elspe he prepared a certificate.
How the “Heidenstrasse” got its name has not yet been clearly established. An explanation could possibly come from the fact that the Christianization took place from Cologne along this road through the Sauerland. The later Electoral Cologne Sauerland and Saxony were mission areas at that time. Missionaries came to the so-called pagans via the old connecting route . There are numerous original parishes along Heidenstrasse . According to Nicke, a more likely explanation of the name is that the path led in many places through heathland that had been created by deforestation and grazing.
Heidenstrasse led from Leipzig, where the road had an additional connection to Breslau and Thorn , via the Eichsfeld on to Kassel. The route then ran through Korbach and the Sauerland towns of Medebach , Winterberg , Nordenau , Westfeld , Oberkirchen , Winkhausen , Gleidorf , Schmallenberg , Wormbach , Bracht , Elspe , Grevenbrück , Attendorn , Valbert / Grotewiese and Meinerzhagen . Following Heidenstrasse you came to Cologne via Marienheide , Wipperfürth . Due to the terrain, the route of the Heidenstrasse deviates only a few kilometers from the straight line between the end points.
Because of its connection, Heidenstrasse was the most important road for the Sauerland in the Middle Ages . With the construction of further country roads in the 19th century, Heidenstraße lost its special traffic importance. In the Sauerland, it can still be seen in the landscape in the form of bundles of ravines or strips of wood and is protected in places as a ground monument.
See also
literature
- Herbert Nicke: Heidenstrasse. History and landscape along the historic highway from Cologne to Kassel . Verlag M. Galunder, Nümbrecht 2001, ISBN 3-931251-74-8 .
- Annemarie Schmoranzer: Hiking and pilgrimages on Heidenstrasse . Bonifatius-Druckerei , Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-89710-296-X .
- Manfred Wolf: "Traffic" in "North Rhine-Westphalia. Landesgeschichte im Lexikon" ("Publications of the State Archives of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia", Series C: "Sources and Research" 31) by Anselm Faust . Patmos , Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-491-34230-9 .
Web links
- Heidenstraße section Winterberg-Medebach-Korbach ( page no longer available )
- Heidenstraße near Attendorn ( page no longer available )
Individual evidence
- ^ Philipp R. Hömberg : The ring walls on the Wilzenberg . In: Contributions to the history of the city of Schmallenberg . Schmallenberg 1969, p. 176.
- ^ Friedrich Albert Groeteken : History of the ancient parish Wormbach . In: History of the parishes of the dean's office in Wormbach in the Meschede district. Volume II, Part I, Rheinische Verlagsanstalt and Buchdruckerei, Bad Godesberg 1939, p. 6.
- ^ Herbert Nicke: The Heidenstrasse. History and landscape along the historic highway from Cologne to Kassel.
- ^ Herbert Nicke: The Heidenstrasse. History and landscape along the historic highway from Cologne to Kassel.